Bring on the Learning Revolution!

1.  What would you pursue or study if you had unlimited time and resources?

 If I had no boundaries of time or resources, I would pursue life and connections with other people. I want to meet them, learn about them, listen and talk to them, do things with them, inspire them, learn from them. When I say "them", I mean people from all over the world and from all kinds of backgrounds and viewpoints. I would travel the world to meet these people. I would learn about their culture, life, history, language, science, and Earth. 
 
2.  Which has more influence, Aptitude or Attitude, and Why?

Attitude is more important for sure. By definition, aptitude means: a natural ability to do something. This is an unchangeable thing. You cannot change what you are born with. By definition, attitude means: a settled way of thinking or feeling about something. This is a changeable thing. People can change their attitude about how they feel about something. I believe this is the key to success. You can be naturally talented at something, but if you do not have a positive attitude about it, the effort is useless. Everyone has natural abilities. Attitude is just the gateway.
 
3.  Do you think that our current grading system needs to be abolished? What alternative do you recommend?

Not only does our current grading system need to be abolished, but our entire view of standardizing needs to be abandoned. As he said in the video, life is not linear. There is no one direct path to success. Life is organic. There are many ways to get to one place, yet there are also many paths to take from one. Grades in this sense, are linear. Our world of different minds and different abilities are being put along a linear pathway, with one beginning, one way, and one end. 

Alternatively, I recommend that we take on a system something like I heard Nadia, my German exchange student, describe last year. From what I understand, in Germany there are different levels of high school, with different concentrations or pathways. Here's where my thinking goes beyond the German school system. I like the concept behind this system, where there are different concentrations if you think you know what you want to do. Also, there are different levels of learning, which I would develop into places for different types of learning. In my system, if you think you know what you want to do you can explore that career area easily. If you are not sure what you want to do, you can explore a wider variety of options. Also, if you learn differently than others around you, you can join the group that learns similarly to you. Perhaps, with this system, high schools in general should be different from each other and act more as a pre-real-world education system. 
 
4.  Some of the HMP class goals are: to help students develop time management skills, foster a sense of independence and accountability, and real life problem solving. This class requires a lot of student motivation since you are not meeting with a teacher on a daily basis. What areas of improvement or areas of personal growth has this class brought to your attention (time management, procrastination, self advocacy, computer skills, writing or communicating deficits, etc.)?


 This class has definitely brought time management to my attention, as well as the importance of communication and and computer skills. Since I have rowing practice at 4:30 every day, and the Hall County Government office is not open after 5 pm on weekdays or open on the weekends, I must go during my scheduled HMP hours. I have to account for the time driving there as well as get enough hours and also get to rowing in time. It's been a real challenge but it has taught me many lessons (and has also broken the monotony of sitting in a classroom everyday!). 

The importance of communication and computer skills has also been more prominent in my life since I started HMP. I must communicate with my mentor, and her to me, about what I am to do if she is not there that day or where to go if I have an out-of-office assignment. (in fact the other day my mother threatened to take my phone, which is my only email access during the day, and I freaked out because I wouldn't have been able to communicate with my mentor or anyone). My computer skills have definitely improved with the wide variety of weekly assignments I have been given. With the computer assignments, however, has also come many challenges. I discovered that when your internet goes down at home, you must have a plan B to get your assignments done. For the last few weeks internet has been unavailable at my house so I have had to carve time on the weekends (because the library is no longer open after rowing during the week) to go to the library, where I am right now. This has been a challenge but I have found a temporary solution :).